Yesterday, we received some thrilling news: Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff starring Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman finally has a trailer and release date! To celebrate this, we’re looking back at Mr. Show, the brilliant HBO sketch comedy series that Odenkirk stared in with David Cross. Here are some of Odenkirk’s finest moments from before he became Walter White’s sleezeball attorney.

When he played a rapist who gets an unusual punishment.
In this sketch, prison overcrowding becomes too much of a problem, so a creative solution comes about: release the criminal, but have a man follow him around letting everyone know exactly what he did. In this case, Larry Kleist, a rapist, is followed by a man wearing a board that says “I’m with a rapist.” Also while working his job as a telemarketer, he has to let the customer know he’s a rapist before he can say anything else. Naturally, this is leads to a lot of hang-ups. The subject of rape is an extremely difficult thing to derive humor from, but this sketch manages to pull it off. It also suggests a fairly apt punishment.

When he played a guitar teacher who sends some serious mixed messages.
David Cross is a young boy who wants to play the guitar, but has no instincts. Odenkirk is his instructor who is a little too encouraging. That all changes when Odenkirk receives a mysterious phone call from a doctor. As it turns out, he was just being nice because he thought the boy was dying. Unfortunately, a bunch of chart mix-ups leaves everyone confused. In the second half, the sketch gives us an interesting theory for why some of our least favorite celebrities have been famous for all this time.

When he took a lie detector test – and told some surprising truths.
No matter what question Odenkirk is asked, he always answers yes, and he’s always telling the truth. The joy hear comes partly from the questioners trying to think of creative new questions to ask, but also from Odenkirk’s brutally frank responses every time around. Not only does he cop to smoking crack, he enthusiastically recommends it (“It’s great. It’s crack. It gets you really high.”)

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Johnny Sugar, can I call you Johnny Sugar? Johnny Sugar, your list is shit. Absolute shit. First off, any list about Bob Odenkirk on Mr. Show needs to have the single greatest delivery of “What the Fuck” ever given and that occurred during the Kedzie Matthews skit ([www.youtube.com]).

Secondly, you don’t feature the blowing up the moon skit? He played CS Lewis Jr! This skit leads into the one where he keeps firing David (which features the 2nd greatest WTF? of all time) and then into Don Pratt, the guy who’s not a lawyer.

And finally, if you’re going to use a skit from Season 1 (which is unwise), you should at least reference the time he played the voiceover guy and delivered the greatest tagline of all time: “Mr. Pickles’ Funtime Abortion Clinic: We’ll bring out the kid in ya!”

I’m am very disappointed with your performance today and will be writing my local representative.

I love the porno store that he ran like a mom-and-pop outfit. It was the perfect mix of him being innocent and dirty. Also, the one where he invited Cross over as apologies for nearly strangling him to death for stealing his newspapers, if only for the ending.